Politics

TV Ads Boost Boxer In California

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 29, 1998 / 11:25 AM EST / CBS

A $300,000-a-day TV blitz has helped Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer to a 9-point lead over GOP challenger Matt Fong, according to a new Field Poll.

The survey released Thursday had Boxer leading Fong by 51-42 percent among likely voters, with 7 percent undecided. The survey of 678 likely voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

An earlier Field Poll, released Oct. 9, had Fong leading 48 percent to 44 percent with 8 percent undecided. That poll had the same 4 percentage point margin of error.

The difference now, pollster Mark DiCamillo said, is Boxer's ad campaign.

"Apparently, this has led may voters to re-examine and reappraise the candidates, and it has resulted in significant movement away from Fong toward Boxer," he said.

The survey also showed Boxer gaining support among men.

She has launched a $300,000-a-day TV ad barrage, much of it negative, and the President Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, which plagued her campaign all year, now appears to be having little impact.

A last-minute $500,000 donation from Democrats in Washington combined with her own cash on hand gives her the ability to saturate the airwaves though Tuesday. And more money is coming in: Hillary Rodham Clinton is coming to California for two fund-raising events on Friday.

In three weeks, a series of aggressive ads attacking Fong's positions on health care, toxic waste, abortion and assault weapons have enabled Boxer to fulfill the fundamental strategy of her campaign: to depict her rival as out of step with the California electorate.

She restated those themes in two new ads released Wednesday, both of them airing statewide.

She was helped by a San Francisco Examiner report that said Fong donated $50,000 earlier this year to an ultra-conservative religious lobby in Orange County, the Traditional Values Coalition, which is opposed to abortion and gay rights. On Monday, Fong signed a pledge to guard gay rights, but that, too, caused division in GOP ranks. The latest survey was conducted Thursday through Tuesday.

"First, he alienates moderates, gays and pro-choice voters, and then by signing the agreement he may well have alienated his conservative base," said political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe. "Of course, there are precious few places the base is able to go they aren't going to vote for Barbara Boxer but it does raise an image problem for him."

He has begun airing a TV ad featuring his mother, former state elections officer March Fong Eu, who exhorts voters to back her "good son." Boxer swiftly responded to that ad.

"Every mother wants to help her son get a better job and I understand that, but that's not what this race is about," Boxer said.

Fong appeared Wednesday night with CNN's Larry King, accusing Boxer of airing negative, misleading ads. Fong said Boxer has taken his record "distorted it and told lies bout it." Boxer declined an invitation to appear on the show, King said.

But political observers say Fong is paying the price for failing to respond earlier to Boxer's October attacks.

"He has allowed Barbara Boxer to define him in ads as a frightening right-winger, and thus she has moved right into the center, which is where political campaigns are won," said GOP political analyst Tony Quinn.

"He gave the impression that he didn't have to respond to Boxer's ads because they were too harsh. What he has to do now, and it's not too late, is say it's not true and point out her left-wing record, that she's to the left of Dianne Feinstein. They have to contrast Boxer with Feinstein," he added.

Feinstein, a Democrat, is California's other U.S. Senator. She is supporting Boxer.